US justices query if lethal injections cause pain

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several Supreme Court justices on Wednesday grilled state and U.S. government lawyers about whether lethal injections as currently administered for executions caused excruciating pain.

"Your procedure would be prohibited if applied to dogs and cats," Justice John Paul Stevens told Florida Assistant Deputy Attorney General Carolyn Snurkowski.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also asked whether the method currently used involved the risk of a death row prisoner dying an excruciating death.
...
Justice Stephen Breyer said states could administer more sodium pentothal to ease the pain or could have a doctor present at the execution. "That doesn't seem too difficult," he told Snurkowski.

Justice Anthony Kennedy {and Souter} asked whether the state had a minimal obligation under the Constitution to investigate whether it used the most humane method....

On the other side, Justice Antonin Scalia, a strong death penalty supporter, said the Supreme Court has never held that a state must use a method that causes the least amount of pain.

"Hanging was not a quick and easy way to go," Scalia said.

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=11976934&src=rss/ElectionCoverage

[pinto]

1. It's a lot unsettling that a SCJ isn't familiar with "cruel and unusual

punishment" prohibitions...Scalia is rogue justice.

[Rose Siding]

5. Breyer's question must be sardonic

He's bound to know that their oath doesn't allow doctors to assist in executions.

[Bluzmann57]

2. Abolish the death penalty

and then it will be a moot question.

[ReadTomPaine]

3. "Hanging was not a quick and easy way to go," Scalia said.

Scalia has always been the lynch mob type. He's be one of the ones dressed up with his wife and kids, smiling when they kicked the table from under someone.

Ugly stuff.

[Ms. Clio]

6. Yeah, neither was drawing and quartering, or burning

He's one sick son of a bitch.

[leftchick]

4. you really have to listen to the recording of their exchanges

Scalia is completely INSANE! He went on about (paraphrase) "nowhere does it say a person has to die by a non-painful method". I about crashed my car! I need that transcript to read the exact quote!

:puke:

[Ian David]

7. Maybe if they used a Bispectral Imaging machine to monitor sedation?

Does bispectral index monitoring optimize intravenous anaesthetic drug delivery?
Jaap Vuyk
Deparment of Anaesthesiology
Leiden University Medical Center
2300 AA, Leiden, The Netherlands
http://www.eurosiva.org/Archive/Nice/SpeakerAbstracts/Vuyk.htm


Also:

PEDIATRIC ANESTHESIA
Validation of the Bispectral Index Monitor for Measuring the Depth of Sedation in Children
Senthilkumar Sadhasivam, MD, Arjunan Ganesh, MBBS, Amy Robison, BA, Robin Kaye, MD, and Mehernoor F. Watcha, MD

Departments of Anesthesiology and Radiology, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Bispectral Index (BIS) is an empirically calibrated number derived from adult electroencephalograph data that correlates with the depth of sedation in adults. We tested the hypothesis that the BIS score is a valid measure of the depth of pediatric sedation in a study designed to avoid limitations of a previously published report. BIS values from 96 healthy ASA physical status I–II children aged 1–12 yr undergoing sedation were continually recorded and electronically transferred to a computer. Two independent observers blinded as to BIS score evaluated sedation using the Observer’s Assessment of Alertness/Sedation (OAA/S) and the University of Michigan Sedation Scale (UMSS) at 3–5 min intervals. There was a significant correlation between BIS and UMSS and between BIS and OAA/S by both the Spearman’s rank correlation test and by prediction probability (P < 0.001). In children <6 yr, there was a significant correlation between BIS and the clinical sedation scores for subgroups undergoing invasive and noninvasive procedures (P < 0.001). There was also good agreement between the 2 independent observers who assessed clinical sedation scores (kappa = 0.51, P < 0.001). We conclude that the BIS monitor is a quantitative, nondisruptive and easy to use depth of sedation monitor in children.

More:
http://www.anesthesia-analgesia.com/cgi/content/abstract/102/2/383